Statement on New Restrictions on Immigrants and Refugees

In response to the President’s new Executive Order targeting immigrants and refugees, Janson Wu, Executive Director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, issued the following statement:

“The new executive order does nothing to remove the offense of blatant discrimination from the President’s first executive order targeting immigrants and refugees.

America at its best and at its strongest is a country that is inclusive, generous, and open-hearted. This is a vision of our country that the President does not seem to understand.

There is a single justice movement emerging that vigorously embraces these ideals. LGBTQ people stand in solidarity with all immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ, today and in all the days to come. We will not be divided, and we will not give up our vision of a strong and generous America.

The executive orders are not only un-American, they are ineffectual if they are meant to make America “strong.” They in fact weaken us by dividing us, and we refuse to be divided.”

Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders works in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation.